Wesfarmers would welcome an Aldi expansion into WA: Goyder

The boss of the owner of Coles is not fearful of an expansion of Aldi to the west despite the discount grocer managing to gain a foothold in the eastern states.

Wesfarmers Managing Director Richard Goyder told The Sunday Times that the competition would be welcomed by Coles, where their turnaround plan is gathering momentum.

“I’ve always advocated that competition is good because if you’ve got competition you get better outcomes for consumers and from a business point of view you have to be always improving your game,” he said. “Aldi has been very effective, and certainly a big focus of Coles is ensuring we’ve got a competitive offer against the Aldis of the world.”

Despite Mr Goyder’s welcoming of the German grocery giant, Aldi has insisted that their current expansion plans are completely focussed on the east coast for the time being and a WA entry is not on the cards in the “short to medium-term”.